Need to understand God - II

As discussed in the previous blog, there are some generic problems which everyone of us has to face and that it is not possible for us to avoid these problems. The problems are described in our Vedic scriptures as "janma, mrtyu, jarah, vyadhi kali dukha darshanam.." i.e.
1. Birth
2. Death
3. Old Age
4. Disease

If we put these sequentially we can say that birth, old age, disease and death are the natural problems everybody faces. Now how these four are problems? Lets see..

1. BIRTH
Imagine yourself in a small room with the door locked and no-one inside. How long can you stay in that room? Certainly, you will be bored off in few hours and feel irritated to get out of the room. Not just this, imagine you are hanged upside down in that position alone in that room. Also somebody has left some lizards, cockroaches and spiders in the room... but this is not the end. There is also some stinking sewage and garbage in the room which is smelling badly. Well now, how long can you stay in such a room? A minute... or few seconds...?

Well, each of us has stayed for full 7 months in such a room !!
How?
According to our shastras, (which is also proven by medical science), the soul develops consciousness in the second month inside the mother's womb. In such a conscious position it remains in the womb for full 7 months. He is surrounded by worms, stool etc in the womb and in this position he tries to move (remember the carrying ladies describing how they can feel the movements of their babies?), but he still cant get rid of this horrible position, till he finishes his term of 7 months !

2. OLD AGE
Many of us may not understand the seriousness of this problem, because we have not yet reached that age, but we can clearly see it on the faces of those staying in old age homes. What is it the old people go through:
> Loneliness
> Knowing that few days are only left, for death to arrive
> Diseases

Maximum group of old people die of falling prey to certain disease. The body becomes weak. It is difficult to walk properly, or even eat. The strength and immunition of body starts fading, and hence the diseases catch easily. Not just that, constant devil of loneliness and wait for death keeps haunting the people who have grown old.

3. DISEASE
Still don’t believe this really is a problem? Well.. just visit a nearby hospital. There are cases where people have died of tumours, cancers, heart failure, lung diseases, kidney failures. And now most importantly, AIDS. We cannot understand the trauma of a person who was having a nice time with his friends and family and one day he comes to know he has AIDS.

Is there a single person who has never fallen ill? Everyone of us face either cold or fever or something else now or then. Well its a good argument, that the medical science is coming up with proper medication for these diseases and so nothing to worry. But it is to be noted that if medical science invents a medication for Disease1 today, a new Disease2 will come up tomorrow.

Few decades back, they made a breakthrough by coming up with medication for leprosy, TB, chicken pox etc. But then we got cancers. Once they came up with medication against cancer, we got AIDS. Now they are struggling to counteract AIDS, and by the time they succeed, we will be facing a new fatal disease.

4. DEATH
The most scaring one? Well.. for all the brave ones there who dont care for death, and who have "live every moment of your life" attitude, death is sure to come anyway. The intelligence is not to ignore the problem, but actually find out the solution of the problem. Ignoring the problem may seem to be a brave step, but it is at the same time un-intelligent.

According to our shastras, the pain of the biting of 40,000 scorpions at the same time is NOTHING compared to the pain of death.We are very much attached to our possessions. If we own a car which gets damaged in an accident, we will become upset. If our new shirt gets torn accidently, we feel very sad. And what to speak of the pain we feel, if someone close to us dies?

We are very attached to our possessions. Then we cannot even measure how much we are attached to our own body. Death means "I will snatch everything from you", which means, your knowledge, education, friends, family, property and above all.. your own body. Hence this pain of everything being snatched is beyond any explanation. It is gruesome. Death is not a painful experience just for one who dies, but also for those closely related to him.

If a mother loses her son or a wife loses her husband, this pain remains in their heart and haunts them all their life. Nowadays, daily in the news we can see so many accidents, bomb blasts, crime etc... people are losing their lives. Their loved ones have got a wound which will not heal till the end of their lives.

So these four basic problems are sure to come.. unavoidably.Apart from these four basic problems, there are three ways we get these problems:
1. Adhyatmik
2. Adhibhautik
3. Adhidaivik

1. Adhyatmik:
The problem due to our own mind, e.g. stress, tension, sadness, depression etc. People even commit suicide due to these type of problems.

2. Adhibhautik:
Problem due to other entities. e.g the boss in office, bomb blasts done by someone to kill others, criminals and robbers, your neighbour :) , mosquitoes, snakes, wild animals etc.

3. Adhidaivik:
Problems posed by nature e.g, earth quakes, floods, tsunami etc.

Hence this is the consolidated list of generic problems. But now the million dollar question is, "how the solution of these problems related to the need of understanding God?"

The answer to this question will appear in the coming blogs.